Monday, August 30, 2010

rebel with a lot of causes: factory farms

I haven`t been a very good Internet activist as of late. I think I`m in the midst of a quarter-life crisis. My mother is in the hospital back home and I am having severe anxiety about my plans for the future. (Please send a prayer my way if you believe in all that.)

But I feel that I should take advantage of the latest food recalls to bring attention to factory farms. The egg recall, along with the recent beef recall, highlights how unhealthy our farming practices in the U.S. really are.

Our cheap food system is largely based on factory farming, a practice that is cruel for animals and unsafe for humans. Factory farms represent some of the worst treatment of living things that I have ever heard of. Animals live in filthy conditions with very little space to move; many are unable to move at all.

Chickens in factory farms typically cannot open their wings. They are starved in order to induce molting, which causes them to lay more eggs. The close confinement of these operations, and the fact that the chickens live covered in their own waste, makes them susceptible to infections and diseases. The feed that they are given also makes their eggs less nutritious for humans.

To reduce your exposure to excessive antibiotics and possible food poisoning, please consider taking this pledge. I never buy factory-farmed eggs when I am in the U.S., and really, it isn`t that difficult to live without them (try baking with bananas instead of eggs).

If nothing else, please check out the Humane society`s pages about factory farming, and sign a petition or two. Right now, the government is finally feeling the pressure to make these industries safer. Let`s use this bad situation to make our food better, and help animals at the same time!